ISLAMABAD-Roots Millennium Institute of Professional Development-MIPDE launched Pakistan’s largest 11thAnnual Teacher Development Conference on Saturday, November10, 2018 on the very real-life concrete theme “MONDAY-AM I READY?” associated with Iqbal Dayat Pak-China Friendship Centre, Islamabad. Roots Millennium Education, Pakistan understands that the role of an educator and a school leader is extremely challenging, complex, and continually demanding in today’s time of constant change and innovation. Nearly 1000 teachers and organizers were enthusiastic and highly motivated to take the learning initiatives and training ahead to their classrooms. This year’s conference brought together leading national and international speaker’s including Abbas Husain Director Teachers Development Centre, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy renowned Nuclear Physicist, Umair Jaliawala CEO School of Leadership, Syed Talat Hussain a Geostrategic Analyst, Uzma Yousuf Country Director CAIE, Shazia Khawar Regional Director, Society South Asia, British Council, Saman Imtiaz Head of Study UK and IES British Council, Dr Rizwan Taj Head of Psychiatry PIMS, representatives from Microsoft Pakistan who motivated and injected new ideas into the conference delegates comprising Roots Millennium Education CEO Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq TI, Chief Operating Officer Anna Faisal, Directors, Head Mistress’, Branch Heads, Academic Coordinators and the entire teaching faculty.

Dr Arif Alvi, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was the worthy Chief Guest on this promising day. He heightened the multifarious responsibility of teachers in an era of interconnected dimensions and emphasized that it has become imperative to transform our schools from centres of teaching and learning to hubs of innovation, creativity, and excellence.

The President appreciated TME’s commitment to the overall development of students who, alongside academics, are seen in the forefront in all the international and national mega events. Abbas Hussain, the founder of SPELT (Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers), facilitated the conference and enlightened the delegates about the concept of ‘open and closed space’ in classrooms and how effective and enthusiastic teaching converts all kinds of areas into “learning spaces” that may nurture young minds and foster quicker learning. He emphasized that the ideal and intrinsically motivated teachers open new doors of knowledge that helps intelligence transition from one phase to another productive one. Umair Jaliawala, mesmerized the audience with his motivational talk. He urged the teachers to build positive classrooms that don’t insulate learning spaces from young and impressionable students.

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy talked about the 21st century skills that students need to survive and succeed in the future world that is peppered with digital technicalities. His message of creating safe spaces for such an environment hit a spot with the audience.

Pakistani journalist, foreign policy commentator, and television personality, Talat Hussain spoke elaborately about the impact of social media on mental health of young minds. With the internet becoming a necessity in every home and office, majority of today’s youth spent a big chunk of their time online. With this, problems like depression and online bullying are a recurrent theme- something that was highlighted by Talat Hussain.

While addressing the session, Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq Chief Executive the Millennium Education and Founder MIPD, talked about the underlying objective of the conference. His discourse revolved around creating collaborative thinking on key issues like education to generate thought provoking discussions on contemporary approaches.

He reiterated that the institution’s support of the legendary history of teaching, learning, and knowledge creation has been the reason why the conference was conducted. From the beginning, the vision of the Teacher Development Conferences has been to bring teachers into direct contact with leading scholars, academia, and educational thinkers in a stimulating environment. In the end, Faisal Mushtaq glossed the learning outcomes of the training and presented the closing remarks followed by a question and answer session. This Teacher’s Development Conference2018 was all about providing world class learning opportunities to the teachers. This conference aimed to provide the teachers with a platform to express themselves not only as educators, but also to discover the hidden potential in each one of them that leads to the discovery of their ultimate identity.